In modern automation systems, an increasing separation between a control system, a communication system and the device level can be observed, wherein more and more control intelligence is integrated into the field devices as part of the decentralizing effort. In this context, the parameterization of the device functions becomes more and more important with respect to ensuring a reliable system function.
In known automation systems, proprietary mechanisms of integrated device parameterization are frequently utilized such that external devices that do not feature these proprietary mechanisms cannot be used. This is the reason why it is important to realize an open and standardized design of interfaces, wherein an optimally integrated parameterization of external devices is of the essence.
Due to the separation of the control level and the device or instrument level, the required parameterization steps are frequently carried out separately. For example, the control system is parameterized on the control level and the device is parameterized on the device level. Furthermore, variables that, for example, have an I/O-reference to the channels on the respective devices are used in the control. In order to use these channels, they need to be parameterized prior to the operation of the respective device because the corresponding function can only be assigned to these channels on the devices by means of the parameterization.
Consequently, the separation of the two aforementioned steps is associated with certain problems, at least in automation systems, namely because they can lead to different tooling, a different project storage and an inconsistency of the device parameterization and the control parameterization.